Royal Mail officials are refusing to put a family's letters through their door in case their cat attacks the postman.
The postal service claims Lana - a tortoiseshell coloured cat - is a risk to its staff after she scratched a postie's hand when he pushed letters through the letterbox.
Instead, the the postman has to knock on the door each morning and Lana's owner, Carl White, has to collect the mail in person.
The family say Lana was just being playful but Royal Mail say they have to keep staff safe from "animal attacks".
Now Mr White, 36, and wife Carol, 26, have been told to keep Lana away from the door or face a ban on having post delivered to their home in Portsmouth, Hants.
Mr White, a cleaner at Portsmouth Dockyard, said he was amazed to be told Lana, who has been with the family for 18 months, was a risk.
He said: "Our letterbox is about six inches off the ground on the front door and our cat often likes to sit behind it.
"The postman had put the letter through the door and for some reason Lana scratched his hand.
"She wasn't being vicious - I think she just saw the hand and was being playful.
"A couple of weeks after the incident we got a letter from Royal Mail to say if we did not keep her away from the door then they will suspend our service.
"I was shocked and thought someone was playing a joke. She's really docile, I can pick her up like a baby and she won't bat an eyelid."
Mr White said the family now had to take measures to keep the cat and the postman apart.
He said: "Now the postman knocks on the door each morning to hand our post to us in case the cat is there.
"But we have glass pannelled doors and so you would easily be able to see if the cat was sitting there.
"That was the first time she had ever done anything like that and she's not done anything like that since.
"I think it's a bit much to say they might take us off the mailing list if it were to happen again."
Lana is known as Lana Banana by the couple's sons Jack, 10, and Connor, seven.
The family also have another cat called Layla, who they have nicknamed 'Layla the sailor', a budgie and a cockatiel.
A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "We can confirm an employee suffered an injury to a finger after being scratched by a cat while on their deliveries.
"We have contacted the owner to make sure they are aware of the matter and ensure we can continue to safely deliver to the address in the future.
"Royal Mail takes very seriously the safety of its employees, particularly our frontline staff who deliver the mail.
"Unfortunately, animal attacks are a hazard faced by our employees and we record around 5,000 animal attacks a year on our postmen and women.
"Our main aim is to prevent attacks, supported by an on-going campaign to raise awareness of the issue among our customers."
